Friday, October 11, 2013

Arizona Lawmaker’s Call for Constitutional Sheriffs Has Radical Roots

An Arizona legislator recently made headlines by comparing
President Obama to Adolf Hitler as she decried the closures of national
parks within her district, part of the ongoing federal shutdown. She
posted the following on her Facebook page:
Barton later defended the Obama-Hitler comparison, telling the Arizona Capitol Times
that she believes the president is “dictating beyond his authority,”
citing gun-control legislation and Obamacare as examples: “It’s not just
the death camps. [Hitler] started in the communities, with national
health care and gun control. You better read your history. Germany
started with national health care and gun control before any of that
other stuff happened. And Hitler was elected by a majority of people,”
she said.

But while the inapt comparison may seem outrageous (the claim about gun control under the Nazis, for one, is entirely bogus),
Barton’s plea to call out “Constitutional Sheriffs” to nullify the
authority of federal park rangers is even more interesting, and
certainly more revealing.

Those “Constitutional Sheriffs” that she hopes can “revoke” the power
of federal authorities are actually participants in a far-right
antigovernment “Patriot” movement effort — descended from old Posse
Comitatus teachings — to enlist the sheriffs of America in the belief
that individual county sheriffs are the highest law of the land and
possess the power to nullify and even arrest federal authorities.

Rep. Barton also has a history of far-right activism. Her page at the website
of the Arizona House of Representatives trumpets her mid-1990s activism
in the so-called “Sagebrush Rebellion” — an antigovernment land-rights
movement popular in the West in the 1980s and ’90s — and says she was
“an elected officer in People for the West, a land-rights group.” This
latter organization was a major player in the so-called “Wise Use” movement, which in the 1990s became a fertile recruitment ground for the Patriot movement and efforts to organize militias.

The notion of the supremacy of the local sheriff originated with the Posse Comitatus movement,
a radical anti-Semitic organization, fueled by conspiracy theories and
race hatred, that sought to dismantle the federal government and its
civil-rights institutions. The Posse laid the groundwork for various
Patriot-movement organizations in the 1990s, including the Montana Freemen and Richard Mack’s own early organizations.

Rep. Barton so far has not responded to the SPLC’s queries regarding
her promotion of the “Constitutional Sheriffs” and its Patriot movement
agenda.

Sara Robinson has worked as an editor or columnist for several national magazines, on beats as varied as sports, travel, and the Olympics; and has contributed to over 80 computer games for EA, Lucasfilm, Disney, and many other companies. A native of California's High Sierra, she spent 20 years in Silicon Valley before moving to Vancouver, BC in 2004. She currently is pursuing an MS in Futures Studies at the University of Houston. You can reach her at srobinson@enginesofmischief.com.